What is the difference between art and propaganda? Well, among much else, propaganda tells you what to think. Art, meanwhile, is meant to teach you how to think—even to think for yourself. One result of that is that propaganda tells you that the world is simple, while art reflects the fact that the world is complex.

It's not a comprehensive definition, but it was one that was constantly at the back of my mind as I watched the recent Netflix-released film Farha, which has received especially rave reviews in the Arab press. For instance, Al Jazeera celebrated this film being released on Netflix. In the words of the Qatari-owned news outlet, the film "depicts the horrors of the Nakba in 1948, when Israel achieved so-called ‘independence’ on Palestinian land by killing more than 10,000 Palestinians and destroying more than 500 villages. Fast forward 75 years and Israeli soldiers still do not need much help looking like murderers." Thus does one of the world's most propagandistic news sites write about one of the most propagandistic films I have seen in years. 

As something of a binge-watcher, I had just finished the latest season of the closely titled Fauda and was looking for new content. Farha has received some rave reviews.

The problem with Farha as a work of art is that it is not only inaccurate, and propagandistic, it is almost unbelievably simplistic. The film (which on a side note is one of the slowest-moving films I have seen) starts with portrayals of "Palestine" before the dreaded creation of the state of Israel. To say that the depiction is saccharine is to severely understate things. 

The film fails as a work of entertainment because it is so un-entertaining. But it fails as a work of art because it is so artless. So what is it doing on Netflix?

My suspicion is that the platform has taken a certain amount of criticism because of the number of Israeli-made productions that have appeared on the platform. Dramas like Fauda have been among the most popular series of their kind on the platform—something that has drawn a certain amount of negative attention in the Arab press. Though just consider the difference between what Fauda does and what Farha does.

Does Fauda show all Palestinians to be evil child killers? No, absolutely not. The series repeatedly shows Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and others who want the best for their people and advocate and work for peace. Does Fauda show all Israelis as suffering, put-upon victims, and people who are morally untainted? No, it shows people at all levels of society who are morally complex, torn, and self-questioning. Would Fauda even work as drama if it showed Israel without the Arabs as the sort of sepia-tinted Eden as Farha portrays the land without Jews as being? Absolutely not. And in that comparison, you see the true ugliness of what Netflix has done here.

The platform has clearly fallen for the idea that it must balance out Israeli productions with Palestinian or Arab productions. In the process, it has forgotten the fact that the Israeli-made productions just happen to be made by Israelis. The fact that they are Israeli-made is a production detail, not the point. Such productions are not propaganda films arguing a one-sided pro-Israeli case. They are not, for instance, one-dimensional cartoons depicting Arabs as evil, sadistic child killers. Yet that is precisely the "balance" that Netflix has chosen to apply against Israel in the belief that this creates some kind of level-playing field. It doesn’t. It simply highlights the differences not just between one side in a conflict and the other but the difference between bigoted sermonizing and entertainment, between propaganda and art.

By Douglas Murry, Washington Free Beacon/ Photo Screenshot